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can't punch one's way out of a paper bag



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Idioms and Phrases

Be inept, as in Ask him to program the VCR? He can't punch his way out of a paper bag . This hyperbolic term for extreme ineptitude originally was an expression of contempt for a weak or cowardly boxer. [ Slang ; c. 1910]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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